Remnant

“Sho…” Pipp started, chowing down on a pancake she managed to steal from Izzy. “Whatsh going on exactly?”

Zipp raised a brow. “I’d prefer you ask without your mouth stuffed, but…” She tapped the journal Misty had given Sunny, inspecting its pages closely. “Sunny and I are looking for some kind of answer in all of this. Some way of figuring out how we saw the spirits of the Elements, and more so whatever the heck is going on with the Elements themselves!”

“I just don’t get it though,” Sunny mumbled, moving the journal towards her and flipping through its pages. “The best thing I’ve got regarding the Element of Magic is that Twilight Sparkle had entrusted it to one of her students, only for that student to betray her.” She rubbed her temple, sighing. “But that doesn’t lead us anywhere! I mean, maybe that’s why Magic was so terrifying in our dreams?” She scrunched her muzzle. “Gah! But then why did those voices keep saying save her to all of us?! And what the heck does anything Zecora said even mean!”

“Sunny, I think you’re getting a tad stressed over all this,” Hitch added, throwing her a look of concern. “It shouldn’t be getting you all worked up like this.”

Sunny frowned at the stud. “But it is important! The Elements are the most important relics of ancient Equestria imaginable! And Zecora said we have been chosen. Chosen, Hitch! There’s some kind of destiny or fate at work, and we have no idea what any of it means!”

“Maaaybe, Zecora was just messing with you?” Izzy chirped, giggling to herself. “I mean, Pinkie Pie, or, well, Laughter, I guess, seemed like a jokester in my vision, so maybe Zecora was like her too!”

“From everything I know about Zecora, she wouldn’t joke about something like this,” Sunny swiftly retorted. “At least, from what I got of her from my dad.”

Pipp scarfed down the rest of her pancake, proceeding to delicately pat her lips with a napkin soon after. “I know we’re all clinging on to this belief that it was a vision, but what if it really was just a dream?” She glanced over at Sunny, uncertainty in her eyes. “I’d love to believe that this is some grand destiny we’re all meant to fulfill together, but what if that ‘vision’ was just some side effect of the Elements’ magic?”

The table went silent, each pony fidgeting in their seat as they thought on Pipp’s proposal. As pessimistic as it was, they were solely going off of things that literally had manifested in their heads. With how peculiar things had been in the last few days, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe that some very intense hallucinations or magical after effects could be messing with them all.

“I don’t know,” Sunny mumbled, keeping her eyes down. “It just…doesn’t feel like that. It’s all too real.” She took a deep breath. “And why would the Elements come back to us then? They chose Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Maybe they chose us.”

Izzy tapped her chin, thinking to herself. “But…the Elements are all, like, empty-y?” She tilted her head, curious. “Why would they come to us without all their magic?”

“And even then, one of them is missing!”

Zipp exchanged a judging look with her sister, before smiling at Sunny. “Well, if there’s a mystery to solve, you know I’m all for tackling it.” She nudged Hitch with an elbow. “Isn’t that right, sheriff? Can you recall the last pony to solve a problem from ancient Equestria?”

Patting his face with a napkin, Hitch raised a brow. “I know you’re gung-ho for big mysteries, but usually I’m pretty satisfied with my work in Maretime Bay.” He pointed a hoof at the pegasus. “Last time I went on some grand adventure, Sunny and Izzy got arrested, you had to flee from your home due to an uprising against the royal family, and I went on a wild goose chase.”

“But we all became friends because of it!” Izzy chimed in.

The remark from Izzy made Sunny’s ears perk up, as she slammed her hooves on the table and nearly leapt out of her seat. “That’s it!”

“What’s what?”

The group glanced upstairs, watching as Misty finally began making her way down the stairs and chimed in.

“Perfect timing, Misty!” Sunny exclaimed. She pushed out a plate of pancakes she had been hiding away from her friends’ hungry gazes, motioning to the unicorn. “Come here and I’ll explain.”

Putting on a bold face, intent on continuing her deception of the group, Misty threw on her best smile and made her way to the table. A tinge of guilt struck her as she smiled back at Sunny, sitting down and beginning to dig into her breakfast.

“Alright, so,” Sunny continued, gathering the entire table’s attention. “When Twilight Sparkle and her friends first got the Elements, they each had to prove their worthiness.” She tapped the book, smirking. “The last Element to be found was magic, and that was only after the rest of the Elements had been proven to have worthy wielders.” She gestured to the pile of ancient necklaces on the table. “See? They’re all empty-y, as Izzy said, which means we haven’t proven ourselves yet.” She tapped her hoof against the table, her excitement growing. “The reason the Element of Magic isn’t here yet is probably because we need to sort out how to activate the others.” She puffed her chest out, her excitement now overflowing. “And just like Twilight and her friends had to go on a quest to defeat Nightmare Moon, we have to go and face something of our own!”

“So you’re saying we have to go on some journey of self discovery or something to-”

Pipp’s snide remark was swiftly cut short, as the room around the group began to shake intensely. The Elements shook and shimmered, dormant magic surging out of them as they bounced and shuddered with fury on the table. Cups, plates, and more began to stir, falling from shelves and drawers as the tremors intensified.

“I-Is this an earthquake?!” Zipp exclaimed.

“What have you done.”

A booming voice echoed through the Brighthouse, bouncing off the walls and ringing in each of their ears.

Shying back and hiding behind her sister, Pipp gulped. “W-Who is that?!”

“Who has them.”

Hitch put himself in front of the others as they backed up, glaring at the Elements, from which the voice was speaking from. “Sunny, what is this?!”

“This is not your magic.”

“I…I don’t know!” Sunny replied in a panic.

“This is their magic.”

The sound of glass breaking mixed in through the tremors and worry, as the shaking only intensified.

Narrowly dodging a falling glass from a shelf, Misty peeked her head up. “You have to have some idea!”

“Our magic.”

“Oooh this is fun!” Izzy giggled, chattering her teeth together as the earthquake only grew stronger.

“And it is not yours to give.”

Sunny narrowed her gaze, her ears twitching as she squinted at the Elements. “Wait…”

“Whoever, or whatever, has these…”

“I think…”

“This is your only warning.”

“That’s…”

“Do not dare to do what we once did.”

The tremors seized, as the voice spoke one final time.

“For you do not deserve what we brought.”

With that final remark, everything went still. The entire group was frozen in shock, blinking wildly as the glow from the Elements faded away.

Sunny held her breath, the voice replaying in her mind over and over.

“The avatar of the Element of Magic.”

Shrouded in a dense forest that had long overgrown the civilization that once stood there, remained a castle lost to the ever moving cycle of time. In shambles, its once beautiful decor was cracked and gnawed. Its ornate stained glass windows shattered. Its symbolism long dead beyond what many could even remember.

Its rooms were a shadow of their former glory. Shattered display cases, toppled pillars, a destroyed library, and scattered pieces of ash.

Its halls were filled to the brim with books, all heavily written in, all recorded thoroughly, and every last one of their pages contained the same word at the start.

“Log:...”

They numbered hundreds. A canvas of memories recorded over the decades. Some covers faded with time, and some freshly made with care. Though, they laid in piles covered in dust and dirt, uncared for once they were completed. Unloved by whomever their creator was.

And the outside of this forgotten castle fared no better.

The outskirts were scattered with rubble; remnants of homes and memories. Pieces of the past that could never be restored. The only life were wandering creatures, both arcane and ordinary, traveling through the clearing it rested in. They only wished to move along with haste, timberwolves with their tails between their legs and friendly creatures scampering across as if they were being hunted.

They wished to not draw near that fallen castle at that very moment, for they now feared what lay within. The castle was always dormant, at least that's what these creatures thought, but in this particular moment, they quickly learned of what may lay within. It shook the trees, it sent tremors through the earth, and it struck fear into that entire forest.

As her voice boomed through the air.

And it was filled with sheer rage.